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More than one hundred delegates from six states
More than one hundred delegates from six states held a Black convention in Philadelphia. John Mercer Langston, one of the first Blacks to win public office, elected clerk of Brownhelm Township, Lorain County, Ohio. In 1856 he was elected clerk of the township of Russia, near Oberlin. In 1857 he was
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Oct
16
1855
Death of P.B.S. Pinchback
Death of P.B.S. Pinchback (84), major Reconstruction politician, Washington, D.C.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
21
1921
Henry Lewis
On this day Henry Lewis becomes the first African American to lead a symphony orchestra in the United States.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Feb
15
1968
Riot, Mobile, Ala., after a Black mass meeting
Riot, Mobile, Ala., after a Black mass meeting. One Black and one white were killed. Knights of White Camelia, a paramilitary white supremacist organization, founded in Louisiana.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by APEX Museum
May
14
1867
Indictment in Atlanta Murders
Fulton County (Atlanta) grand jury indicted Wayne B. Williams, a twenty-three-year-old photographer, for the murder of two of the twenty-eight Black youths killed in a series of slayings and disappearances in Atlanta. William denied the charges but was convicted in February, 1982.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Boston Professional Chapter
Jul
17
1981
John Mercer Langston, born
Congressman, attorney, diplomat, dean of the law school and president of Howard University, John Mercer Langston was born, 1829
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
14
1829
U.S. Government grants Atlanta $1 million
U.S. government granted Atlanta some $1 million to finance mental health and social programs in the wake of a mysterious series of abductions and slayings involving at least twenty two Black youths.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
5
1981
Wash., D.C. Slave Emancipation and Reparations
On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Passage of this act came
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Sponsored by Prospanica Boston Professional Chapter
Apr
16
1862
Duke Ellington Born
Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington, world famous musician, born in Washington, D.C.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Apr
29
1899
Philips, 1st Black nominated president
Rev. Channing E. Philips of Washington, D.C., became first Black nominated for president by a major national party. Philips was nominated as favorite son candidate by District of Columbia delegation at Democratic convention in Chicago and received 671/2 votes.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Aug
28
1968
Robert Edward Chambliss, a former KKK member is convicted of first degree murder
Robert Edward Chambliss, a former KKK member is convicted of first degree murder in connection with the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four African teenage women.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Intellitech
Nov
18
1977
Mary McLeod Bethune Born
Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and civil rights leader, born in Mayesville, South Carolina.
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Jul
10
1875
Knights and Ladies
Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver organized in Mobile, Alabama, by four Posephite priests and three Catholic laymen.
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Nov
7
1909
Fourteenth Amendment
U.S. Supreme Court decision in Slaughterhouse cases began process of diluting the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court said the Fourteenth Amendment protected federal civil rights, not Civil rights heretofore belonging exclusively to the states.
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Apr
14
1873
Historian and Political Scientist
Death of Dr. Clarence A. Bacote (75), historian and political scientist, in Atlanta.
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May
1
1981
Andrew Jackson issued Proclamation
Andrew Jackson issued Proclamation at Mobile, Ala., urging free Blacks to rally around the standard of the eagle in the War of 1812.
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Sep
21
1814
Spingarn Medal : Medar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers awarded Spingarn Medal posthumously for his civil rights leadership.
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Sponsored by APEX Museum
Dec
12
1963
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organized at a mass meeting in Elks Hall in Harlem. A Philip Randolph was elected president. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters would become one of the most successful union organizing efforts in history. The union gave voice to the many railroad porters and
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Aug
25
1925
Governor Barnett Found Guilty
Governor Barnett found guilty of civil contempt of the federal court. United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered Barnett to purge himself of contempt or face arrest and a fine of $10,000 a day.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sep
28
1962
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., politician and civil rights activist was born in New Haven CT
Congressman Clayton Powell, Jr., politician and civil rights activist was born in New Haven, Conn.
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Nov
29
1908
Death of Carter G. Woodson
Death of Carter G. Woodson (74), father of Black history, Washington, D.C.
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Sponsored by Diversity In Action
Apr
3
1950
COINTELPRO Memorandum
A memorandum sent to field offices of the FBI set goals for what was termed as a new counterintelligence program against African American Nationalist groups. The objective was to block attempts by targeted groups to coalesce, grow and exist. The agencey believed unity was the first step toward
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
3
1968
Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first licensed woman
Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first licensed woman architect in the U.S. and the first African American woman to become a fellow in the American Institute of Architects, born.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Boston Professional Chapter
Apr
15
1928
The first U.S. stamp ever to honor an African American is issued bearing the lik
The first U.S. stamp ever to honor an African American is issued bearing the likeness of Booker T. Washington.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Museum of African American History in Massachusetts
Apr
7
1940
Montgomery, Ala., protest
Montgomery, Ala., police broke up protest demonstration on Alabama State campus and arrested thirty-five students, a teacher and her husband.
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Sponsored by Intellitech
Mar
1
1960
Executive Order 9808
In the aftermath of World War II, mob violence and lynching of Black Americans, in conjunction with the continuing controversy about segregation in American society, led President Harry S. Truman to issue Executive Order 9808 on this day which set up a committee to study the protection of civil
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Dec
5
1946
Marchers led by Martin Luther King
Thousands of marchers, led by Martin Luther King Jr. completed first leg of five-day Selma-to-Montgomery march. Marchers were protected by federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and U.S. Army troops. Selma-to-Montgomery march ended with rally of some fifty thousands at Alabama capitol. One of the
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
7
1965
William H. Lewis
William H. Lewis appointed assistant attorney general of the United States.
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Mar
26
1910
Basketball star Walt Frazier born
Basketball legend Walt Frazier was born in
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Mar
29
1945
Killings in Civil Rights demonstrations
Jonathan M. Daniels, white Episcopal seminary student from Massachusetts, killed and Richard F. Morrisroe, white Roman Catholic priest from Chicago, seriously wounded by shotgun blasts fired by white special deputy sheriff in Hayneville, Alabama. They were participating in civil rights
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Source: Blackfacts.com
Aug
12
1965
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